Elton Brand went 8-10 in the first quarter. He missed his first shot - which he followed with a tip-in - and hit an insane, fading 21-footer at the buzzer to finish the quarter.

Here's what it looked like:

[11:30/11:29] Livingston brings up the ball, leaves it with Mobley up top and dives toward the corner. Mobley gets a nice high screen from EB and moves left with the ball, passing it off to TT on the high left wing. Off the screen, EB darts down toward the block, getting a quality down screen on Tony Battie from Shaun Livingston. Good things are materializing here. EB, now free, gets the ball on the left block against a recovering Battie. EB goes up strong, just misses as he's fouled. The Battie foul isn't called, so EB puts the tip back up and in.

Nice, nice set - the kind of stuff we became accustomed to last spring.

[10:56] In the interest of editorial objectivity, I guess I have to make mention of Jameer Nelson's picking EB pocket at the elbow on the next offensive possession. It happened and, I suspect, Elton probably feels badly about it, but not as badly as he would had it been Smush Parker. We can tolerate Nelson, even if he's an anatomic basketball-playing flea.

[10:33] Mobley dumps it into EB in the right post against Battie. Elton is about three feet off the block here. He dribbles it deliberately for a second - smartly - just trying to feel out approximately how much help Grant Hill is willing to commit to him on the double-team. Hill nibbles, but doesn't offer full help because Mobley is close enough in to do some damage if he does. EB hesitates, fakes, hesitates again, almost as if he may pass it back out to Cat. Then a light goes off and EB determines that the 15-foot face up jumper is sort of his thing, even if Tony Battie is in front of him. It isn't his prettiest shot of the night, but Elton hits it.

[10:00] Elton's only other miss of the quarter, and it's a decent miss because, look, even Elton Brand on a good day isn't going to hit everything and that's essentially what happens here. Cat feeds Elton down low. Elton dribbles, spins, releases and it just misses. The good news: Aaron Williams is on the weak side glass for a putback. So the Clippers remain perfect on possessions in which Elton gets the first shot.

[9:32] Wellwaddayaknow! The good old S/R. How we missed you, old friend. O latest born and loveliest vision far...

Quick and deadly. Shaun gets a forceful screen of Nelson from Brand. Shaun very quickly slings a graceful across-the-body pass to EB on his right for the quick pop from the top of the circle. Granted, Battie's show wasn't much, but Livingston looks so much like a point-guard on this play. And Brand shoots with pre-game shootaround proficiency.

[6:56] Basic Version 1.0 Elton Brand. He receives it from Shaun at the left elbow. There's no immediate double-team, so EB backs down Battie to about 14 feet, spins left, pops and hits.

[3:33] The Clippers get it now. Not only isn't Orlando doubling on Elton, but Elton realizes that he can beat Battie to the basket anytime he wants to. So the Clips strip it down: Livingston into Elton on the left block. He turns toward the lane, puts his head down and drives for the hoop. And the foul.

[1:31] Cassell and Maggette enter the game for Livingston and Thomas. On this play, I'd love to keep crooning about EB, but this is just some basic fourth-game-of-a-West-Coast-swing snoozery you see sometimes. Cassell and Kaman run a high S/R, while Elton is at the top of the circle against Howard. When Turkoglu and Arroyo trap Cassell off the screen, this leaves Kaman dashing toward the basket alone. Howard immediately picks up Kaman, leaving nodoby to cover Brand.

Easiest basket of the night from outside of three feet, but when you move off the ball, sometimes this stuff falls into your lap. It's your crusty old grandfather telling you to make your own luck in life.

[0:29] Hat tip to Clips Nation Steve. Before the Magic are set, Sam quickly dishes it over to EB. Elton seems surprised that, at :18, Howard is leaving him that much space inside of 17 feet. He initially hesitates, then realizes that he's got the face-up jumper if he wants it. He does, and he hits. You can always back it out, but why not get the ball into your big where he likes it if there's an opening five seconds into the possession? If the defense closes, then you can decide what you want to do and still have :15. But if the space is there, then why piddle around for nine or ten seconds?

[0:00] Not much of a chalkboard play. Orlando has a foul to give and does so at 2.4.

Give it up a little bit for Sam Cassell, because if he doesn't put a screen on Dwight Howard - who has eaten meals larger than Sam - Elton doesn't get this ball. Maggette finds EB, Elton tries to work some space, can't, then fires it up strong at the siren.

Good.

It's only one game against a road-weary team, but there is so much here to like. Hitting over 60% from the floor will do that. We didn't even get to Tim Thomas or Chris Kaman, but it follows that - when those guys are performing - the double team on Elton is a much more difficult call for an opposing defense to make. My best guess is that Pat Riley might show Elton a little something different on Tuesday night.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

Good news!

We have launched a new ClipperBlog.com site! You are currently on our old system & are viewing an archived page. We will continue to keep all 670 posts from our first 3 years on this archive site. Soon we will be closing the comments for each of these older posts.

Dunleavy finally made the move which is long due. When offense is in disarray...defense shouldn't be #1 priority. Fix Offense first and then concentrate on defense. I think that's what he's going to do. Starting TT or Singleton might work. Let QRoss enter when Sam takes over.

Very bad trade to me for the franchise. We are trying to recreate the late 90's Bucks here, not the early 00's Wolves. Get with the program JJC.

More on the real, EB and KG are quickly converging at a wash, and KG is only getting older. Maggs isn't exactly a throw-in and he tips the scales against the Clippers badly. (EB and KG a wash? Don't believe me? http://basketball-reference... ) (That list also requires that one begin to ask, will EB make the Hall? Better start the hype machine now.) I don't like any simple scenario that brings the Kid here. They all feel like a net step backwards. Same thing with Iverson, but more so.

If you can concoct a reasonable scenario that sends out Brand and Maggette and brings back KG and another solid rotation player, I would hear it. You'll probably need 5 teams, 3 trade exemptions, Isiah AND Kevin McHale involved. I won't like it, but I would hear it.

I would accept something like Maggette and Mobley for Redd or Jesus Shuttlesworth, maybe Joe Johnson who is proving to be not a Phoenix fluke. Outside of that, there aren't alot of reasonable trades out there that definitely make this team better. We can sit around all day and dream up lots of unreasonable scenarios, but this is Clipperblog not Lakersground.

The team likely is what it is. (Until they dump Maggette in a REALLY bad trade.)

Why would we trade maggs? He's abotu the only thing we have going for us these days and if he just had more minutes maybe he'd have better stats. Mobley and livingston should be named in trades waaaay before maggs. Eb trade? that's madness. I'd give up corey and mobley, even corey and livingston for michael redd... but that's a nice fantasy

You guys that are all hyped up on Corey seem to forget that HE is the one who supported the sixth man role...personally I like seeing him come off the bench and run the pack with the second rotation. I'd about given up on Mags and his sh**ty attitude until that happened. And giving up Livingston should never be an option.

Both EB & Livingston are cornerstones(made of iron & gold) of Clip Club. Only player who's trade worthy is Corey. He has no floor space on this team. But he is aggressive enough to shine with teams like Denver Nugs or TWolves.

Trapp's Good & Bad combinations are accurate description. Hope, Dunleavy would make note of that fact.

Livingston a cornerstone? Really? Are we all still buying this myth? I've touted him as the next magic for 3 years now and all i see is a timid player who has terrific defensive ability and limited offensive potential. I get an occasoinal flash of brilliance, and then he fades away like usual, scared to really step up. Seriously, i think livingston is tradable. We keep talking about him like he's precious but then there's very little to back it up.

Livingston will stay with the Clippers just like Kobe, Iverson, KG have been doing for their respective teams. Hey, don't forget he is still young, inexperienced and new face in the league. He is developing his active role step by step. Those young PG's who
outperform Shaun until now have to do it to survive in this league. Shaun doesn't need to worry about that.

His #1 assignment is to run his team & create shots for his team mates. And he is a top level defender. His shooting ability is far better now than last season. And it will come naturally to him. There's no reason for concern.

There are many good , young players who couldn't make it to NBA. If NBA can pick atleast 25 players every year and groom them for International Basketball, that would be great. NBA is rich enough to allocate enough funds on these players. If NBA loves USA, this is one of the ways to prove it. To win world championship, year-long total coomitment is required. Asking NBA players to sign up for this tournament is ridiculous.

04/11/08 19:06:18

Add Comment

This item is closed, it's not possible to add new comments to it or to vote on it